The One Problem
by Carmelcate
Summary: House and Chase have moved in together, and House is pleased with this development. He just has one problem. Major fluff. Established House/Chase.


**Warnings**: Slash – so that's boy on boy fluff. If that's not your cup of tea, it's the back button for you. Also... Major out-of-character-ness.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own the series, the characters House, or Chase. I do, however, own the very thinly veiled plot device known as Mandy, and I apologise for her very stereotypical, overdone, over the top Australian-ness. I make no profit from this.

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Not much had changed when they'd started living together. Chase didn't complain about the mould growing in the shower, he didn't moan about House's mess – which Stacy had done, all the time. No, Chase was surprisingly low maintenance.

That was another reason why House felt the way he did for his little wombat.

The changes that had arisen from the move-in were mostly good: There was now food in the fridge, every day. The washing up was usually done. Usually activities such as food shopping and tidying were left until absolutely the last possible minute, or until Wilson got too annoyed with the lack of food and beer in House's apartment.

The biggest positive though, was having Chase around, permanently.

House knew his limits with people, he knew when he needed space. There would be a cut off point, even with Wilson, his closest friend, when he'd have to say "Get the hell out" but he hadn't found that with Chase. It was like he could never get bored of him, or something.

The one tiny little annoyance though, was the phone calls.

Example A: House had just gotten in after an extremely long, boring seminar which Cuddy had somehow roped him into attending, and all he'd been able to think about for at least the last 2 hours of it was what he'd do to Chase when he got home. So, there he was, walking through the doors of their apartment, finding Chase lazing on the sofa. Hobbling over, he captured Chase's smiling lips in a desperate kiss, when the phone had started ringing.

They hadn't taken any notice of it, Chase's fingers hastily undoing the buttons on House's shirt, until the answer machine had kicked in.

"Not here. Leave a message." House's gruff voice sounded, with a high pitched beep following.

"Robbie? Robbie, have I got the right phone number? Pick up if you're there, I really need to talk to you," A girl's voice was heard, with a thick Australian accent, sounding bouncy and upbeat.

Chase suddenly stopped the heavy make out session, and reached for the phone.

"And what do you think you're doing?" House growled playfully, dipping his head so he could kiss Chase's sensitive neck. "Call her back."

He smiled with pride as he felt Chase shudder with pleasure. Some things never got old. For a minute, Chase resumed their previous and incredibly sexy activities, but the Aussie girl on the phone kept babbling, "Robbie, if you've given me a wrong number, I'm going to be very annoyed at you. That didn't sound like you on the answering machine. Or maybe that was whatshisname you're always on about. Why does he get to record the message and you don't? I thought you were sharing a place now, Robbie? Robbie, are you there? Pick up, pick up, pick up..."

"Sorry," Chase said, breaking the kiss for a second time, and squirming away from House's embrace. He shot an apologetic look at his dejected lover, who was now glaring at the phone in Chase's hand, "This'll only take a few minutes."

Chase pressed the green button and put the phone to his ear, "Hi, Mandy. Yeah, I'm here. Naah, I'm not screening your calls, would I be talking to you right now if I was? You alright, mate?"

House leant his head against Chase's shoulder, wondering who the bloody hell was calling to interrupt them. He knew Chase had a lot of friends, and he couldn't really blame them for wanting to talk to Chase, but really – did they have to call now? At this minute? When all House could think about was how sexy Chase looked right now; hair slightly tousled, the first few buttons undone...

Chase gave a loud, unguarded laugh.

House looked up.

He wondered who was on the other end; this Mandy person. When he used to stay over at Chase's old apartment, he always seemed to be on the phone. He guessed Chase's old Australian pals called quite a bit, then.

"Yeah, no, I'm alright. It's just been a long day."

Maybe House should have asked how Chase was before he'd attacked him.

House listened in idly to the one sided conversation, loving how Chase's accent got gradually more pronounced as he talked to his old friends.

Did he miss being away from them?

They obviously missed him, if they were willing to pay for trans-Atlantic phone calls.

_Eventually_, Chase hung up.

"Who's Mandy?"

"Friend from back home," Chase answered, "Known her since I was two years old."

House kept his mouth shut. He wanted to ask 'is she pretty? What's she like? Does that mean she knows all about your parents? Did you ever sleep together? What did she want?', but refrained.

"She has the worst timing in the whole world." He closed the distance between their lips once more.

That had been the start. There were about two phone calls every day from this Mandy chick (and that was just on the landline! Chase's mobile was always going off at work), and random calls from other friends.

She hadn't quite grasped the concept of the time difference, so often his phone would be ringing in the early hours of the morning, or just as they had gotten to sleep.

House was playing around on the piano. Chase was at the hospital, and was due to be home in about twenty minutes, and on his return, House planned to take him out for dinner. That didn't happen very often. This time, it had been largely decided by the fact that Chase, who was working overtime, hadn't had a chance to run to the local supermarket.

The phone rang.

House limped over to it, abandoning the tune he was playing, "Make it fast, I'm heading out," House said grumpily down the line.

"... Greg House?" A woman's voice sounded.

"Are you an angry patient?"

"...No...?"

"Then, yeah, I'm Greg House."

"Ha! G'day, mate! Nice to finally talk to you – I've heard so much about you from Robbie." The women, who House could only assume was Mandy, gushed. He didn't know quite what to say. Usually, whenever he picked up the phone and heard an Aussie accent, he chucked the receiver over to Chase, but his little wombat was absent this minute. "I'm sorry – I'm Mandy, an old friend of Robbie's."

It was weird to hear Chase being referred to as Robbie, or Robert. He'd always been 'Chase' to him.

"Yeah, Chase mentioned you. Hi."

"Oh that's so adorable you call him Chase! I'll have to remember that next time I speak to him!" She laughed again, "Does everyone call him Chase over there?"

"Mostly. Or Robert, if he's been bad," House answered awkwardly. He wondered when Chase was due home.

She chuckled, evidently having no trouble with the whole best friend getting to know the boyfriend debacle. "Is Robbie, or _Chase,_ around? It's nothing massive, just fancied a chat."

"Nope."

"Cryptic, much!"

House paused, "He's just on his way home from the hospital, but then I'm taking him out to dinner."

"AW!" Mandy cooed, making House look at the phone like it was a poisonous spider, "That's so cool. Right, I won't bother you anymore. But hey, I think it's really good of you to take him out. Someone special like Chase deserves to be spoilt a bit, and I have to rely on you to do that, me being in a different country and all." She said in all seriousness.

"I'll do my best."

House looked up as he heard a key twist in the lock, and Chase walked in, smiling at House as he shut the door behind him.

"Well, good. But mate, just so you know – If you hurt him, even just a little bit, I'm taking the next flight out to the US and hunting you down."

House smirked. He found the overprotective, overbearing Australian woman quite amusing, really. Chase walked into the kitchen, after dumping his shoulder bag on the coffee table and shrugging off his leather jacket.

"Fine by me. Don't intend to."

"Bonzo, mate!" She was just about to launch into another rant about something or other – no wonder Chase had trouble getting off the phone! – when House cut her off.

"Oh, Mandy, while we're on the subject of threats..."

Chase poked his head in from the kitchen, a frown creasing his brow. "Mandy?" He mouthed, slightly worried that he'd heard the word 'threat' and 'Mandy' in the same sentence, and that the said sentence was voiced by his lover.

"If you ever, and I mean ever, phone here again at three AM, I'm on the next flight to Australia..." He hoped she got his humour. If not, then Chase would probably hear nothing but what an awful relationship he was allegedly trapped in.

But she laughed. "Gottcha, mate! Still need to work out the time difference. You know, you're alright."

"You too."

"Is that Mandy?" Chase asked, still flushed and worried.

"Is that Robbie?" Mandy asked, on hearing his voice. "Tell him I approve."

"Bonzo."

And then he hung up.

House put the phone down slowly, as Chase sat down next to him on the sofa, still with his worried eyes in place, "What was that about?"

"Nothing," House hung an arm around Chase's tense shoulders, "Oh, Mandy did say to give you a message, actually..."

"And that was..?"

"Just that I'm the most amazing thing that's ever happened to you, and the thinks I'm awesome," He grinned, "Either that, or that I'm Nigella Lawson. It's so hard to understand you and your British accents. Especially over the phone. Or _telephone_, as you'd call it."

"Australian."

"I know."

"What did she really say?"

"I'm not joking! Well, I was about the Nigella Lawson thing. But seriously, she thinks I'm ace."

Chase still looked worried, but there was a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips now.

"She also told me that if I hurt you, that would be the end of me. I didn't know you had such an overbearing, overprotective mother-cub, Chase. Anyway, get your coat."

"Where are we going?"

"Out. To dinner."

"Is this Mandy's influence?" Chase asked playfully.

"Nope, all me," House kissed Chase briefly, before standing up slowly to grab his cane, "Well, a ploy to get you out of the apartment and away from that bloody phone. I don't like sharing."

No, there weren't many changes. But even the annoying ones were kind of nice. In a weird way. House smiled.

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Well, thanks for reading! Hope you liked it, and ididn't find it too awful.

Please review if you have the time : )


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